• Chapter 4

    The table grew quiet for a very long time. Sophie's face is ultra pale, Hex is very curious, and Ren and I are both looking down, depressed about our perished mother who had died by murder. That horrible scene is still in my mind, and I tried my best to completely forget about it. But, the more I think about the past, the more I would remember it. I feel like the best option is to do nothing, for now.

    There was a knock on the door. Sophie got up from her chair and went towards the living room. She opened the door, and I could barely see a person dressed in a striped shirt and ripped black jeans. It was a boy, almost the same as my age, and he had a bunny-shaped hat. He looked very sporty and athletic, but he wore a bored and unexcited expression.

    "Hey." I heard him say with an uninterested tone. "I just came here to deliver a surprise package to every fellow parent or guardian from this neighborhood. Here you go."

    I saw him hand a huge brown box to Sophie, which is impossible to predict what is inside of it. She thanked him, and he responded something back and ran towards the next home to deliver another box.

    Hex was very excited to examine the box and wanted to see what is inside of it. "Can I open it?" he asked his mom with excitement. "Please?"

    She looked at Hex, and then looked at the box, and back to him. "Let me open it, honey." she said to him, as if she is protecting him from the harmful box. "You would never know if the contents inside the box are dangerous or not."

    Hex sighed, and then he returned upstairs and into his own room. I never knew a house that is shaped so odd had two stories. Expect the unexpected.

    Sophie then took a deep breath and went to the kitchen and dropped the box on top of the table where we were. I looked sideways, and I saw that Ren had went to sleep faced down on the table. What a tired little brother. As he slept, Sophie came back from a room with scissors. She sliced the clear tape and then opened the box. She and I came closer to it and peeked inside. There was a locked black box and a three-numbered mixed lock attached to it. My aunt examined the object, in case if it is very dangerous. There was nothing that caught her eye. She handed to me after her observation, and I flipped the mysterious box over. There was a yellow sticky note, which said, "WHERE IS HEX?," in big and capitalized letters.

    I showed this clue to Aunt Sophie. She grew worried, and decided to check on Hex. I waited, and I heard a loud scream coming from upstairs. Ren instantly woke up, and I quickly grabbed him and rushed towards the stairs and into Hex's room. The room was messy with clothes and opened drawers, and I could see Sophie, kneeling on the ground. "Where is Hex?" she sobbed, and had imitated the note that was attached to the box as well.

    With panicked eyes, I searched around the room for clues or left-behind evidence. There was another note that was located at Hex's bed, and I quickly snatched it and read the note quietly. The paper clearly said, "ALL FLOWERS SHALL WITHER." My eyes widened. I was terrified.

    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone outside, pointing a gun at us. "LOOK OUT!" I shrieked, and I grabbed Ren and purposely tripped Sophie with my shoe, which I had no idea how I did that at the same time. At the same time, a bullet was fired with a loud bang, and the window's glass shattered into pieces. My ears rang, and my heart throbbed with fear. We are never safe.

    After the shot was fired, the stranger that was armed with the gun outside had disappeared. I got up and quickly headed downstairs and lock the doors. Ren and Sophie boarded the windows with wood, and was hammered tightly with nails that were in a storage room. Everything was happening so fast.

    We went back to Hex's room to board his broken window as well until I found another note on a nearby drawer. I picked the paper like the rest of the previous notes and read it to my mind. The note said, "IF YOU KILL HEX, THE CURSE WOULD END." I did not trust that command, so I tore it into halves and into fourths, and then headed to the kitchen. We were indeed stranded, and we had nowhere to go.

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    After Lily had went to the kitchen, Ren concentrated on putting the sticky note back together, and briefly scanned the words. "Kill Hex, hm?" he mumbled and thought to himself. "I will, for the sake of my family."